He says the Saint Vincent De Paul Village relies on car donations for hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue a month. Instead, he estimates during the three month cash for clunkers program, his organization dropped about $450,000 dollars.

"The problem is, in this economy, there's no way to make that up."

The lot where St. Vincent De Paul's stores the donated cars is mostly empty. One employee said their twice a week auctions used to have about 200 to 300 cars. Now, it's closer to 60.

Father Joe also pointed out that by destroying the clunkers turned in, it cuts the supply of used cars on the market, driving up the price for those who can't afford a new car.

He says all this is happening at a time when donations of all kinds are down, and they're seeing more people who need help. In fact, he estimates last year they had about 2,500 people a day needing assistance of some kind. This year, the number is closer to 3,300 people a day.